Facebook has officially started work on creating VR apps

It's been less than a year since the social media giant acquired the virtual reality startup Oculus VR, with the Oculus Rift headset, so far claimed to be extremely fun by the people who got to try it out.

Re/Code's senior editor Peter Kafka got a chance to talk to Chris Cox, Facebook's chief product officer, at theCode/Media conference in Laguna Nigel, California, and found out that the social media giant has its own VR ambitions.

“I mean, virtual reality is pretty cool. We’re working on apps for VR,” he said.

“You realise, when you’re in it, that you’re looking at the future and it’s going to be awesome. When you’re in Facebook, you’re just sending around these bits of experience — a photo, a video, a thought,” Cox said, whereas with VR, you could be “sending a fuller picture.”

Asked whether people will be able to create VR content, Cox said yes: "You’ll do it, Beyoncé will do it."

Cox was stingy on details, not saying how they would work or even how long it would take us to get a hold of one.

"We're a long way away from everyone having those headsets," he said.

Facebook acquired Oculus VR back in July 2014 for $2 billion (£1.3 billion). The social media's CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he saw great potential in the virtual reality realm, not just for video games, but for medicine, education and communications.

Last month, a new studio called Oculus Story Studio was unveiled, together with Oculus Cinema, the video-watching program for the Rift.